Sharing of Data Leads to Progress on Alzheimer's
By GINA KOLATA
New York Times
Published: August 12, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/health/research/13alzheimer.html
In 2003, a group of scientists and executives from the
National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug
Administration, the drug and medical-imaging industries,
universities and nonprofit groups joined in a project
that experts say had no precedent: a collaborative
effort to find the biological markers that show the
progression of Alzheimer's disease in the human brain.
Now, the effort is bearing fruit with a wealth of recent
scientific papers on the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's
using methods like PET scans and tests of spinal fluid.
More than 100 studies are under way to test drugs that
might slow or stop the disease.
. . .
The key to the Alzheimer's project was an agreement as
ambitious as its goal: not just to raise money, not just
to do research on a vast scale, but also to share all
the data, making every single finding public
immediately, available to anyone with a computer
anywhere in the world.
No one would own the data. No one could submit patent
applications, though private companies would ultimately
profit from any drugs or imaging tests developed as a
result of the effort.
[moderator: to read the entire article use this link -
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/health/research/13alzheimer.html]
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